Holy Martyrs Eudoxius, Zeno, and Macarius (†311) — September 6 / September 19 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, September 6 according to the Julian Calendar (September 19 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the Holy Martyrs Eudoxius, Zeno, and Macarius. They suffered martyrdom in the reign of Maximian Galerius (305–311), the successor of Diocletian.

When Diocletian issued a decree that every true believer who refused to offer sacrifice to the idols was to be put to death, a certain number of Christians, among them nobles and state officials, sought to escape the torments that awaited them and fled to various lands. Eudoxius left his high office and, together with his wife Basilissa and his whole household, made his way to the city of Melitene in Armenia.

When the governor of the city learned of the saint’s arrival, he sent soldiers to search for him. The soldiers met the martyr dressed in the clothing of a beggar; they did not recognize him and asked him where Eudoxius could be found. The saint concealed his identity, invited the soldiers into his house, and let them spend the night there. He understood this meeting with the soldiers as a call from the Lord to the struggle of martyrdom, and in the morning he revealed to his guests who he was. The soldiers were troubled and offered not to betray their good host nor to repay his hospitality with evil, but the martyr refused. He called his wife, set his household in order, and asked her not to mourn on the day of his martyric end, but to celebrate. His wife Basilissa and his friends Zeno and Macarius accompanied Eudoxius. The governor promised the saint that he could keep his life, his high position, and his property in exchange for offering sacrifice to the idols, but the blessed one stood firm in the faith. More than a thousand soldiers standing nearby, secret confessors of Christ, followed the example of the blessed one. The bewildered governor asked the emperor how he should act, and the emperor commanded that the leaders of such audacity be subjected to heavy torments, and that he deal with the rest of the people as he himself saw fit. Saint Eudoxius was cruelly tortured and at last led out to be executed. Before his end the martyr turned to Basilissa, who stood nearby in tears, encouraged her, and asked her to bury his body in the village called Mimna; then he prophesied to his friend Zeno that they would stand together before the Lord. Inspired by these words, Zeno loudly confessed Christ. Basilissa, wishing to share her husband’s fate, fearlessly rebuked the lawless ruler. The governor understood the desire of the brave confessor, and so he did not torture her but banished her. Before leaving, the blessed woman said to the tormentor: if I have not found death at your hands, do you think I shall be deprived of the crown? My King, who sees what is hidden, will count even my desire for martyrdom as an accomplished struggle and will grant me a reward equal to that of my husband.

Seven days later Eudoxius appeared to Basilissa in a dream and told her to inform his friend, the household steward Macarius, that he and Saint Zeno were awaiting his coming. Macarius immediately presented himself before the governor and openly confessed Christ, for which he was beheaded. At that time many other Christians also suffered for their faithfulness to the true faith (†311–312).